About

Castleton University

Castleton's former wordmark logo

Castleton University is a public liberal arts college located in Castleton in the U.S. state of Vermont. Castleton has an enrollment of 2000 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate programs as well as master’s degrees in education and accounting. The college is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

History and governance

Woodruff Hall

Castleton State College traces its history to the Rutland County Grammar School, chartered by the Vermont General Assembly on October 15, 1787. The Grammar School was a regional school, preparing young men for college through instruction in traditional academic subjects such as Latin and Greek. The institution changed its name frequently during the 19th century. At times it was known as Castleton Academy, Castleton Academy and Female Seminary, Vermont Classical High School, and Castleton Seminary.

In 1823 instruction in “the solid branches of female education” began for “young Ladies and Misses.” By the Civil War, the majority of the students attending Castleton were young women.

In 1829, a three-story brick building costing $30,000 which at the time was an enormous sum, was constructed on a small hill south of the village. Principal Solomon Foot (1826-1829), who was to be President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate during the Civil War, was the driving force in this expansion of the school. The Seminary Building (eventually known as the Old Seminary Building) was the most impressive structure in the village, but expensive to maintain and often too large for the school’s struggling enrollment.

Castleton Medical College (1818-1862), was also located in the village. It graduated 1400 students, more than any other New England medical school at the time. Although Castleton Medical College and Castleton Seminary were separate institutions, they often shared faculty. Today the former medical college building, known as the Old Chapel, is the oldest building on the campus.

The first woman principal was Harriet Haskell (1862-1867). She had attended the Seminary as a child, took classes at Middlebury College without being permitted to matriculate, and then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which was not yet a college but offered a college-level curriculum for women. Although Haskell was in her 20s when she served as principal, the school flourished under her administration. With her departure to be principal of Monticello Ladies Seminary in Godfrey, Illinois, Castleton Seminary went into decline.

The school began its transition to a college in 1867, when the State Normal School at Castleton was founded as one of three state normal schools chartered by Vermont.

The Normal School, a term based on the French école normale supérieure, educated students for teaching careers. For 30 years the Normal School property and grounds were privately owned by Abel E. Leavenworth and his son Philip. In 1912, the State of Vermont purchased the property.

The College saw dramatic growth in students and its stature in the 1920s and 1930s under the direction of Caroline Woodruff. Woodruff modernized the school's curriculum, incorporating the theories of Vermont educator-philosopher John Dewey, especially his precepts of "learning by doing" and "learning by teaching." Caroline Woodruff hired staff with advanced degrees and broadened her students' exposure to the world by bringing people such as Helen Keller, Robert Frost, and Norman Rockwell to Castleton. Woodruff was the first and only Vermonter to become president of the National Education Association.

In 1947, the Normal School became Castleton Teachers College. With increased enrollment from men, intercollegiate athletics began in the 1950s.

In 1962 Castleton joined other state-supported colleges in becoming a part of the Vermont State Colleges, a consortium of colleges governed by a common board of trustees, chancellor and Council of Presidents, each college with its own president and deans.

Campus

Campus banner for Castleton State College.

The campus is bordered by Mechanic Street to the east, Glenbrook Drive to the west and is bisected by South Street. Seminary Street leads to the President's House after going past Wright House (Admissions), the Casella Fine Arts Center, Leavenworth Hall and the Georgian Revival Woodruff Hall. Castleton incorporates a building known as the Old Chapel (Castleton Medical College Building), which was once the home of an unrelated medical college that operated from 1818 to 1862 and attracted students from around the world.

Built in 1821, Old Chapel ( Castleton Medical College Building) is the oldest building on the Castleton campus.

In the past decade the College underwent a series of major renovations. A new residence hall fitness center was built in 2004. Dorms and an expansion to the science center was completed in 2007. The $27 million Castleton Student Initiative project was completed in the fall of 2009. It includes a new Campus Center, addition to the Spartan Athletic Complex, multipurpose Spartan Stadium, and an addition to Leavenworth Hall that houses the Communication Department.

The original campus was centered around the Old Seminary Building, which was built in the 1820s and burned in 1924. It was replaced by Woodruff Hall. The Medical College building was moved from Main Street to a location next to the Old Seminary Building in the 1867 to serve as the classrooms for the State Normal School. (The building, by then known as the Old Chapel was moved to its current location on Seminary Drive in 1968.) In 1926, these buildings were joined by the Georgian Revival Leavenworth Hall (burned in 1971), the school's first building devoted almost entirely to dormitory space. In 1951, this building was joined by another Georgian Revival structure, Ellis Hall, and at about the same time a science building was constructed (additions in the 1960s and 2000s, now part of the Jeffords Science Center). Subsequent buildings constructed include Glenbrook Gymnasium (c. 1957, with additions in the 1980s and 2000s), the Coolidge Library (1965, addition in 1980), Huden Dining Hall (1965), the Fine Arts Center (1968), new Leavenworth Hall (1974), Stafford Hall (1990s), and the Campus Center (1977, renovated in 2009). Subsequent dormitories, or "residence halls," include Haskell and Adams Halls (1965), Morrill and Wheeler Halls (1968), Babcock Hall (1975), Castleton Hall (2005), and North, South, and Audette Houses (2006).

Additionally, the college incorporates several former residences into its campus, including the Victorian Stick Style admissions building (Wright House), a circa-1840s Gothic Revival style public safety building, a 19th-century Greek Revival art studio, and a circa-1890s building housing a cafe and administrative offices (Morrill House).

Academic Departments

Natural Sciences Department

The Natural Sciences Department is located in the Jeffords Science Center, named after the late U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords. It is the largest department on campus, with 12 faculty members, all with terminal degrees in their field. Students have the option of seven different majors, in Biology, Chemistry, Ecological Studies, Environmental Science, Exercise Science, Geology and Health Science. The department is active with $538,823 in external grant funding from National Institutes of Health-VGN, National Science Foundation, and Vermont EPSCoR.

Biology Program

Students can receive a B.S. in Biology focusing on either Ecology and Evolutionary Biology or Molecular Biology and Biomedicine. Because of the small student/faculty ratio, students participate in independent research projects focused on salamander and snake ecology as well as microbial and plant genetics. Research is externally funded externally through grants supplied by the Vermont Genetics Network and the American Society for Microbiology.

Chemistry Program

The chemistry program allows for specialization in either Biochemistry or Environmental Chemistry.

Athletics

The Castleton State Spartans compete in 20 NCAA Division III Varsity sports in the North Atlantic Conference and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Castleton was also the 1963 NAIA Division III Men's soccer National Champions. From 1983-1986, Stan Van Gundy (later head coach of the Orlando Magic) coached Men's Basketball at Castleton. Castleton started a football team for the 2009 season as a member of the newly formed Eastern Collegiate Football Conference.

Castleton's men's soccer team were declared 1963 NAIA co-champions (along with Earlham College of Indiana) after the championship and consolation games at Frostburg State University, Maryland were cancelled due to snow.

The men's and women's Castleton State College Spartans hockey teams compete at the Spartan Arena in the Diamond Run Mall in Rutland.

The Castleton Spartans football team represents the school in NCAA Division III college football. The team has been coached by Marc Klatt since 2011 replacing the very first head coach, Rich Alercio, who was suddenly forced out of the post after a scandal involving contact with a player. It has been part of the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference since its inaugural season in 2009.

Notable alumni

William Carris, Vermont State Senator

Scott La Rock

In popular culture

In the 1994 film Time Chasers the main protagonist is seen wearing a Castleton shirt throughout the film. According to director David Giancola, Castleton State College provided several free t-shirts for the film. The film Time Chasers was featured in an 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.